


in your arms (a place that we call home)

by unforgettablemagic



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Comfort, Cuddling, Gen, but its cute, homesick boys, idk - Freeform, idk just read it, lots of sleeping, sort of a pre-zianourry thing?, this isnt exactly a love story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-15
Updated: 2013-02-15
Packaged: 2017-11-29 08:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/684903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unforgettablemagic/pseuds/unforgettablemagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>they know that no matter how far away from home they are and no matter how hard things seem to become, that they can always find home in each other’s arms. and that’s definitely the best thing ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in your arms (a place that we call home)

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Home by Dierks Bentley. I don't know where this came from-- don't ask.

_it’s been a long, hard ride_

_got a ways to go_

_but this is still the place_

_that we all call home_

the boys soon realize that seven months is a really long time to be away from home. sure, they get small breaks to go back for a little bit, but it’s still not the same. four months in is when they really begin to feel the strain from such a grueling tour.

zayn cracks first. he begins to smoke at least one pack of cigarettes a day, and if they’re not performing or doing interviews, he’s off in a quiet corner somewhere, sleeping or listening to his ipod, trying to be as far away from civilization as possible.

louis’ next. he becomes even more antsy and readily breaks rules. he stays up late partying, wakes up with a hangover the next morning, and usually ends up showing up late for whatever it is they’re meant to do that day. management despises it, but they also know that if they try too hard to stop him, then he’ll most likely up his rebellious acts.

harry follows. he spends too much time on twitter and blogging sites, taking in every harsh comment despite however many times his family and his band mates have told him not to. he begins to scrutinize every aspect of his body and compare himself to other guys.

niall puts up a façade that everything is okay. his usual bright smile seems to just be gorilla glued onto his face; it’s on him when he wakes up, and it’s on him when he falls asleep at night. the only reason anyone can really tell that there’s anything wrong is because niall almost stops eating. but whether it was out of stress or just forgetting to eat, they didn’t know.

everyone truly begins to realize that there’s something wrong when liam breaks. liam is usually the one who’s calm and controlled; he’s their rock. but even the stress and pressures of touring and being away from home gets to him. he doesn’t sleep, he rarely eats, and he’s got dark bags under his eyes. he talks less in interviews and just in general, in favor of sticking his headphones in his ears and pulling his hood up over his eyes and trying his best to block out the world.

 

-

 

after one particularly exhausting day, filled with four interviews and two signings and one performance (all in three different cities), the boys are back in the hotel and in their separate bedrooms, trying to make up for the energy they overused that day.

louis was almost asleep in his surprisingly comfy hotel bed when he heard the door unlock. he tensed, and vaguely wondered who the hell would have his key card and who would be bursting into his room at midnight. he lays still and listens as the door opens and shuts quietly, encasing the room in darkness once more. he hears the person trip over something on the floor and mutter a quiet _‘ow, fuck’_ under their breath, and louis is forced to stifle a giggle.

he feels the person run into his bed, and it shakes, nearly sending him into a heart attack. he manages to get his heart rate sort of stable when he hears a familiar voice whisper, “louis? are you awake?”

louis calms down when he realizes that its just one of his band mates, and he flips on his side to face them when he feels them knock into the bed once again, on purpose this time.

louis squints, but he can’t see who it is because its pitch black in the hotel room. “yeah? what’s up?”

he hears the person let out a relieved sigh. “i can’t sleep, lou.”

louis’ brow furrows when he realizes that its liam who has snuck into his room this late at night. “li? what do you mean you can’t sleep?”

“i just can’t lou. i can lay still and close my eyes for hours but i just can’t fall asleep.” he hears liam choke up a bit. “i hate not being able to sleep, lou.”

louis sits up, alarmed, because liam sounds close to tears and he definitely doesn’t want a physically and emotionally exhausted, sobbing liam on his hands. he reaches out blindly in the direction of which he thinks liam is standing, and it takes a couple of seconds before his hand brushes what he believes is the back of liam’s wrist. he grips it tightly and tugs, silently telling liam to get in the bed with him.

louis feels the bed dip with liam’s weight, and suddenly there’s heat next to him where’s liam’s climbed under the covers. he wraps an arm around liam’s shoulders and pulls him to his chest, forcing the younger boy to use louis as a sort of a pillow.

he rakes his fingers through liam’s fast growing hair as he says, “i guess you’re stuck with me, then.”

liam laughs lightly as he relaxes around louis’ body.

louis hums some nonsense lullaby tune and continues to run his fingers through liam’s hair in an effort to help him sleep, just like how he would his younger sisters when he had to help them get to sleep after nightmares.  he feels as liam’s breathing evens out and he becomes completely pliant, and a sort of a dead weight on louis’ chest. its kind of hard to breathe now, but louis isn’t going to complain because liam’s finally asleep at a decent time and that’s great considering he hasn’t gotten one full nights sleep at all the past three weeks.

he burrows down a little further under the covers and he closes his eyes as he succumbs to sleep.

 

-

 

it sort of becomes a thing.

liam would sneak into louis’ room late at night, whether the boy was awake or not, climb into bed with him, wrap an arm around him—or just use his chest as a pillow—and fall asleep. louis’ gotten accustomed to waking up with liam in his bed, and his arm numb from liam laying on it, or his chest quite a bit warmer than his back from where it was in contact with liam’s back. louis’ still not going to complain, though, because liam now looks a little bit less like someone from the walking dead, and a little more like their loveable liam.

the other boys notice as well. they notice how liam has been getting more sleep, and they’re curious as to how liam’s all of a sudden acquired these wonderful sleeping habits.

well, zayn and niall are curious—harry’s just suspicious.

which is why harry uses that night as a chance to see how liam’s all of a sudden gotten so much sleep. he makes it into liam’s room before liam does, and he hides in the linen closet in liam’s room. he realizes he’s probably being ridiculous, but at least it gives him something else to do instead of locking himself in his room and torturing himself with critical tweets and blog-posts.

when liam walks into his room, harry tenses. he knows liam can’t see him, and he knows liam won’t even think about going into the unused linen closet, but he just can’t help but think about how awkward it would be if liam caught him hiding about in his room. _‘yeah, li, I was just really fucking curious as to how you’ve been sleeping so well, so I decided to spy on you,’_ – harry shakes his head at his own ridiculousness and tells himself to stop being so stupid.

he can’t see what liam is doing because the door is pulled almost all the way shut, but he can tell when the light gets turned off through the crack in the door. he opens the door very quietly and sticks his head out and he can make out vague outlines of things. he can also see a liam sized lump on the bed. he can tell that liam’s moving around a lot, as if he can’t seem to get into a comfortable position, and he frowns because he doesn’t think that constantly moving around while trying to sleep is going to _actually_ help liam fall asleep, but that’s just him.

he hears liam groan, frustrated, and he hears more rustling of the covers. he see’s the outline of liam stand up from his bed and walk towards the door, and harry’s definitely confused now. he waits until liam has shut the door again before deserting his hiding spot and following liam.

harry sticks his head out of the door and peeks down the hallway, and he see’s liam’s retreating figure already halfway down the hall.

_what in the hell…_ , harry thinks, as he shuts liam’s door quietly and steals after the boy. he follows liam all the way to the end of the hall, past his, zayn, and niall’s rooms. he see’s liam stop at louis’ door before pulling a key card out of his pajama’s pants pocket, unlocking the door, and heading inside without any hesitation. harry’s eyebrows shoot up and now he’s more confused and suspicious than he was yesterday, and just _what the fuck are liam and louis even doing?_

-  
  


the next morning, harry knows he has to tell zayn and niall. so when he heads down for breakfast, he silently prays that they’ll be alone at the table for at least five minutes.

when he gets to the breakfast room, he releases the breath he didn’t realize he was holding as he spots zayn and niall sitting together, away from everyone else. he makes a beeline towards their table and pulls a chair out, sitting down directly in front of them. he must look a little crazy, he realizes, with the way niall and zayn both look up from their breakfast’s with their eyebrows raised at him in question.

he leans forward, and motions for zayn and niall to lean in closer too. they both give harry a _‘what the fuck’_ look, but move in anyway.

“i have something important to say,” harry whispers. zayn and niall nod, eyeing him curiously. harry takes a deep breath before he says, “i think liam and louis are fucking.”

niall chokes on his cereal, and zayn yells “they’re _what?!_ ”. harry tries to refrain from smacking them both and telling them to shut the fuck up, because there are people staring and so much for being fucking discreet about it.

“i spied on liam last night because i wanted to see how he’s being getting so much sleep lately,” harry explains, ignoring the identical _‘are you stupid’_ looks that zayn and niall give him. “then i saw him go into louis’ hotel room.”

zayn sighs, “harry, i really doubt that liam and louis are fucking. i mean, it’s _liam_ , for chrissakes!”

harry throws his hands up in surrender, “i know, but it looked pretty damn suspicious to me last night.”

“why don’t we just ask them?” niall says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, which, it kind of is.

 

-

 

that night, harry, zayn, and niall all waited around the corner until they saw liam walk into louis’ hotel room. they ran up to the door and harry pulled out they keycard that he’d managed to snag from paul. when they opened the door, all whispering in the room ceased.

“lou?” harry asks quietly.

“yeah?” louis responds, his voice laced with confusion.

“what… what are you guys doing?”

“well, liam here needed some help falling asleep, so I decided to assist.” louis explains, ignoring liam’s embarrassed jabs of _“louis”_ , and harry has to stifle a laugh because its so like liam to try and not show as much weakness as possible.

“can we join?” niall asks suddenly, taking everyone by surprise.

“of course,” louis says without hesitance. there’s rustling of the covers and louis whispering to liam, telling him to move with him so the other guys can climb in. harry jumps as he feels a warm hand touch his lower back, then he hears zayn’s voice saying. “c’mon, harry. you know we need this.”

“i’m not having a five-some, you guys!” harry whispers furiously, and he hears liam exclaim, _“what?!”_ and louis snort loudly. harry can feel zayn’s body shake with silent laughter and he feels his face heat up and he’s suddenly grateful for how dark the room is and that the boys can’t see how red he is.

“harry, harry, harry.” louis says, a little bit chidingly. “what makes you think we’re going to have sex?”

“well—I just…. I thought—and you...—uh, nevermind.” harry stumbles over his words.

“just get over here, styles,” louis says, and he doesn’t need to be told twice. he clambers over to the bed and nearly trips, to which he can hear niall say, “ _oh my god, louis_. clean up your fucking room. somebody’s going to break their neck one of these days.”

he makes it to the bed without any major injuries, and climbs in. he manages to knock into something warm and he hears liam whine, “ow, harry.” harry giggles and apologizes. his hand touches liam’s skin and he realizes that liam’s not wearing a shirt. he feels the smooth skin of liam’s back and smirks when he feels liam shudder. he wraps an arm around liam’s waist tightly. the bed shakes and dips and he feels heat encompass his back. niall is behind him and he hears the blond whisper in his ear, “hiya, harry.”

he looks over his shoulder and whispers back, “hi, nialler.”

he feels a hand knock into his hip and he realizes its zayn’s. he uses his other hand to reach up and he clutches at zayn’s fingers, squeezing them lovingly. zayn squeezes back, and he smiles into liam’s shoulder.  

harry’s the last one awake as he notices when liam’s breathing evens out and his back relaxes. he notices that louis stops shaking his leg. he feels zayn’s grip loosen slightly on his fingers. he hears niall’s soft snores fill the room, and then he’s forced to stifle a giggle. he snuggles further into the comforter and into the massive amounts of body heat, and falls asleep easily.

 

-

 

the next morning, the boys wake up feeling refreshed and a lot more peaceful than the day before. it might seem weird to find sleep the most when they’re in their best mates/band mates arms, but they wouldn’t change it for the world.

and yeah, sometimes the weight and stress of tour becomes too much sometimes. they become homesick and, especially in zayn’s case, sometimes rather grouchy. but they also know that one night spent together in one of their hotel rooms is always enough to keep them going. they know that no matter how far away from home they are and no matter how hard things seem to become, that they can always find home in each other’s arms. and that’s definitely the best thing ever.


End file.
